Alibaba appoints auditors for film unit

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While the world has been focused on its eye-popping IPO, Alibaba has been doing some much needed house-keeping at its recently acquired film division, Alibaba Pictures Group.

The company announced to the Hong Kong stock exchange today (September 22) that its audit committee appointed PwC on September 4 “to conduct an independent inspection and analysis of the company’s historical financial statements”.

PwC is expected to make an initial report on its findings to the Alibaba Pictures board by early November, 2014.

Alibaba Pictures advised the Hong Kong stock exchange on August 14 that it had discovered “possibly non-compliant treatment of financial information in the company’s financial statements”. The possible accounting irregularities covered a period prior to Alibaba’s acquisition of the company.

Alibaba announced in March that it was acquiring a 60% stake in film and TV producer-distributor ChinaVision Media Group for $804m. It later renamed the company as Alibaba Pictures Group and said the company would produce 8-10 films a year, along with television and online dramas.